DISCLAIMER: I borrowed this idea and am making it my own. Meredith is an original. Anything else like the Power Rangers and whatnot, don't belong to me. I'm just doing this for fun and to prove that I can.

HELL

It was an ordinary day. There was nothing about the day that would make it stand out in anyone's mind. No one would think this day was anything to remember.

Much like when the Challenger exploded or what their parent's were doing when Kennedy was shot, they would have almost photographic recall of everything they had been doing that day, right up until it struck. Each one of them would remember something else about that day; a memory that would eventually send the events rushing back to the surface. And the day wouldn't have meant anything to nine close friends until the phone rang at Adam's house.

He had been working on his homework. That's what he would remember about that day. He'd been doing something as ordinary as his homework while tragedy loomed just beyond his reach. Adam was a power ranger and he viewed evil and destruction in universal terms. So while he'd been working on his homework, a human element was about to turn his life upside down, sending him into a personal hell and no one knew he if he could crawl out.

He was busy trying to figure out a problem for his math homework. When the phone rang, he ignored it. He was studying and he doubted it would be for him. Trini had been accepted as an intern at the state capitol. She worked there two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday. She drove home after each work day. She still attended school, but the internship counted as a work-release so she was getting school credit for it. Adam knew Trini was enjoying it, but he missed her. He looked up at the picture on his desk and smiled. He couldn't wait to see her tomorrow.

He turned back to his homework. He was writing down an answer, when his mom came to his door.

"Adam, I have to talk to you," she said.

Adam looked up at his mom and noticed she was crying. Immediately thinking something terrible had happened to his father or grandparents, Adam stood up. "What happened, mom? Is everything OK," he asked.

"No son, I'm afraid it isn't," she said. She guided him to his bed and he sat on the edge of it. His mother was scaring him and he was almost certain he was getting some horrible news about someone important in his life.

"Son, Trini was in a car accident coming home from Sacramento this evening," she said.

"Oh, my God! A car accident. I have to get to her. I have to know that she's OK," he said, getting a bit hysterical.

His mother placed her hand on his shoulder, holding him to the bed.

"Oh, Adam. Trini was pronounced dead at the scene. There was nothing they could do for her. No one's exactly sure how it happened," his mom said.

Adam stopped listening. There was nothing anyone could do. Adam felt totally helpless. He only heard the words 'dead' and 'Trini.'

He stared. Not really focusing on anything. He just stared. That's how he felt his future was, nothing to focus on, nothing to see.

Mrs. Park was concerned. Adam hadn't reacted since she had delivered the news. She knew her son was in shock and didn't know what to do. She left him on his bed, kissed the top of his head and headed downstairs to the phone. She knew his friends would be hurting right now, but she didn't think Adam needed to be alone. She called the DeSantos house.

Rocky answered the phone. Mrs. Park knew he had just heard the news. "Rocky, this is Adam's mom," she said.

"Mrs. Park, does Adam know? How is he," Rocky asked.

"Can you come over? I think he's in shock. He hasn't said a word since I told him," she said.

"Yeah, Meredith and I will be there. The rest of the gang will probably want to check on him. We're on our way," Rocky . Park thanked him and hung up the phone. She went into the kitchen and started cooking. That's what she did when tragedy struck, she fed everyone.

Rocky and Meredith arrived at the house 15 minutes later. Mrs. Park let them in and wasn't surprised to see Meredith with red eyes and tear streaked cheeks. She offered a small smile, but she held a tight grip on Rocky's hand.

"He's in his room," she said.

Rocky led Meredith to Adam's room. Rocky knocked on the door, but pushed it open with his foot.

Adam was still sitting on his bed, staring at nothing. Rocky looked at Meredith. She knew he was concerned. He'd never seen Adam like this. Granted they'd never experienced death except with their grandparents, so Rocky really wasn't sure HOW anyone is supposed to react when the person they loved deeply was taken from them.

"Hey man. Want to talk about it," Rocky asked, kneeling in front of him. He looked up at his friend and saw his dark eyes glistening with unshed tears. Meredith sat down on the bed next to him. She motioned to Rocky to sit next to him on the other side. Meredith put her arm around Adam and leaned into his shoulder. The strong façade she'd been trying to hold onto, crumbled and she cried into Adam's shirt. Feeling Meredith's tears on his shoulder, Adam turned to look at her. The pain in his face broke Meredith's heart all over again. He wrapped his arms around her and, holding his best friend's girlfriend, cried. Rocky silently let his tears fall.

Meredith and Adam were still crying and holding each other when the rest of their friends arrived. Kimberly didn't say a word, she just moved next to Meredith and Adam turned to face her. She wrapped him in a hug and Adam continued to cry.

MEREDITH AND TOMMY

Rocky had been working out with Meredith when Tommy showed up. Dr. Oliver had gotten a phone call from a colleague at the hospital regarding a car accident victim. The doctor knew that Dr. Oliver's son and daughter were good friends with her, so they had called to let him know his children's friend was dead.

Tommy, who was downstairs working out, was called upstairs by his father.

Dr. Oliver delivered the terrible news to his son. He saw Tommy's eyes gloss over and a few tears slip away.

"I'm going to call Meri at Rocky's and let her know," Dr. Oliver said.

Upon hearing the name of his sister, Tommy wiped his face. "No, Dad, I'll go over there and tell her," he said.

Dr. Oliver looked at his son. "Are you sure," he asked.

"Yeah, I think she's going to need to hear it from me," he said.

Tommy grabbed a shirt from the back of the chair and headed outside. He got in his Jeep and drove to Rocky's house. He probably shouldn't have driven, but he was used to piloting huge zords while under amazing amounts of stress. He arrived at the DeSantos house and bypassed the front door for the back patio. He knew they'd be in the back sparring.

When Meredith saw Tommy, she stopped what she was doing. She knew her brother well enough to know that grief surrounded his walk.

She went rushing to him as Rocky's mom came outside.

"Tommy, what's wrong," she asked him.

"Meri, there's been an accident," he said.

"What kind of accident," she said, steeling herself.

"There was a car accident involving Trini," he said.

Meredith's face fell. She looked at her brother and knew. "She's dead, isn't she," she said.

Opening his arms, he nodded his head. Meredith fell into them and started sobbing in his shirt.

Rocky's mom delivered the same news to him and he walked over to the siblings. Meredith's gut wrenching sobs got to both Rocky and Tommy.

Rocky, with tears falling as well, looked at Tommy. "You should get Kimberly. I'll take Meri inside and watch out for her," he said. Rocky's heart was heavy with grief. He hadn't known Trini as long as Meredith and Tommy, but he knew his childhood best friend would have a broken heart.

Meredith moved into Rocky's embrace and Tommy silently thanked Rocky and headed for Kimberly's.

Rocky guided Meredith inside. He sat her on the sofa and brought her a glass of water. She held onto the glass but didn't drink it. She wasn't aware of anything going on around her. She just knew she had a hole in her heart that had once belonged to her friend, Trini. She looked at Rocky and started crying all over again.

Tommy arrived at Kimberly's and wasn't surprised when she came flying out the door. He caught her and held on to her as she sobbed. Kimberly and Trini had been best friends since kindergarten. Tommy didn't know what to do for her, anymore than he knew what to do for Meredith. He could only do the one thing that Meredith had said was a big comfort to her. He provided the arms and the strength that Kimberly was going to need. He just hoped that he didn't have a breakdown himself. Trini was always good to him and the first to talk to him after the whole evil green ranger thing. Trini was the natural peacemaker. What they would do without her sunshine in their lives was anyone's guess.

KIMBERLY

She had taken a break from her practicing at the gym. She had a slight sprain to her wrist and her coach said for her to lay off the training for a few days. She still worked out, but wasn't allowed near the beam or floor until he cleared her.

She had been upstairs in her room, putting her completed homework in her backpack. She was listening to music when the phone rang. She snatched it up, thinking it was Tommy calling to say he was on his way over.

"Hello," she said.

"Kimberly," came the sobbing voice of Mrs. Kwan.

"Mrs. Kwan, what's wrong," Kimberly asked.

"Trini was… Trini was in an… accident. Kimberly, Trini…was…killed," came the halted reply from her best friend's mother. Kimberly was speechless. Her heart was broken. She didn't know how she got the words out to ask what happened.

Mrs. Kwan told Kimberly the details in halting sobs. She hung up the phone and dropped on her bed. She was vaguely aware of Tommy's Jeep turning into her driveway. Without checking, she propelled herself out of the house and into the arms of her white knight.

Tommy wrapped her in his strong arms. Kimberly cried. The realization hit her and she collapsed. Tommy, expecting Kimberly to drop, carried her inside and sat her on the couch. Tommy kept his silent sentry while Kimberly cried. Tommy knew he would cry, but he couldn't. Not when Kimberly needed him to be strong so desperately. He couldn't let on that he was about to fall apart.

Kimberly cried. Every time she stopped, she imagined another event that Trini was going to miss. Wedding, births, birthdays and graduations. She thought of all the phone calls she was never going to share with her. All the trips to the mall that would be without her. All the walks to their classes. Their group would be minus one now. How were they going to go on without her? How would they all work around not having her in the group? What was Kimberly going to do without her best friend from childhood? She knew she had Meredith and Aisha, but Trini had been with her from the beginning. She was the one, along with Jason, that had held her hand during the divorce of her parents. Trini was the one that convinced her parents to let Kim stay with them whenever the fighting got out of hand and, later, when her mom was out with this guy or that guy. Trini had been her rock.

"What am I going to do, Tommy," she asked him.

"Don't know what any of us are going to do. We'll get through this, but it's going to be hard. I'm here for you," he said.

Tommy held Kimberly for a while before she looked up at him.

"I want to check on Adam," she said.

Tommy nodded and helped her out to the Jeep. They drove to the Park house.

ZACK

Zack was working on a new routine when he got the phone call. He bypassed the phone and got a sandwich out of the fridge. His mom called downstairs and said Jason was on the phone.

He picked up the phone and greeted Jason while chewing his sandwich. "What's up man," he said, through the bread in his mouth."Bro, you need to sit down," Jason said.

Zack noticed Jason sounded like he'd been crying. He grabbed a stool and sat down.

"What man," Zack asked.

"It's Trini. She's dead," Jason said. Zack heard his breath catch and realized he had heard exactly what Jason said.

"She's what," Zack asked, hoping he HAD heard wrong."She was killed in a car accident," Jason said. "I got to go, bro," Jason said suddenly and hung up the phone.

Zack stared at the phone in his hand. His mom came down stairs and immediately asked her son why he was staring at the receiver.

"Got some news. Trini was killed today," he said, putting the phone back on the hook. He walked past his mom and out the door. He had only one destination in mind and that was to find Aisha and make sure she was OK.

He took the woods to her house, running the whole way.

He arrived at the Campbell's and his knock was answered by her father.

Mr. Campbell said nothing except open the door wider and allow Zack into the house. Aisha was crying with her mom on the couch. Zack rushed over and sat down next to her.

"Oh, Zack. How could this have happened," she sobbed.

Zack shook his head, offering no audible answer. Aisha sobbed into his chest, Zack arms around her.

Zack cried along with his girlfriend. Trini and he had been friends since they entered school. Their dads worked together and so, naturally, they played together as kids. The maintained a friendship all through high school. It was one that had worked very well for them. It was actually Trini who suggested Aisha take over her powers when she decided to step down.

Zack felt lost. Trini was always someone who was there in his life. Now, that someone was gone. There wasn't anything he could do to change things.

He held Aisha as she cried. He wasn't sure what he could do for her, but he was going to just be there.

AISHAShe had just returned home from a shopping trip with her mother. Her father met them outside. He told Aisha he had something to tell her. She went upstairs and put her purchases on the bed and came down stairs.

Her mother was in tears. Aisha immediately feared the worst.

"What, dad," she asked.

"Your friend, Trini, was killed in a car accident this afternoon," he said.

Aisha looked back and forth between her two parents. 'This couldn't be true, could it,' she thought to herself.

She looked at her parents. The grief-stricken look on her mom and the saddened look in her father's eyes, told her it WAS true.

Aisha collapsed on the couch. Her mother sat down next to her and held her as she wept. No amount of tears seemed enough to help cleanse the darkness she felt in her soul. She was a power ranger and faced death pretty much everyday. There was always a chance that the power that was supposed to protect them would fail. Zordon had told them that those who were and are rangers would be protected by the power. Aisha hated to think it, but it hadn't done anything to save Trini.

Aisha was so consumed with her grief that she didn't hear the knock on the door.

She wasn't aware anyone had come inside until she felt Zack's hand on her back. She immediately fell into his arms and cried on his shoulder. She knew his grief ran deep. He'd been friends with Trini since kindergarten. He, Jason, Kimberly and Billy had known each other long before she and the others had moved to town. Trini may have become a close friend of hers, but she was Zack's oldest friend.

The two sat on the couch in the Campbell living room sobbing and holding each other before Zack suggested they check on Adam.

They got up off the couch and walked out the door. Adams house was a mile away and they decided to walk, not trusting themselves to drive and not wanting Aisha's parents to witness the grief between them.

JASON

Jason came in the back door of his parent's house. He'd just dropped Katherine off at a dance rehearsal and was coming home to shower and change. He'd worked out that afternoon at the Youth Center, surprised that he hadn't met up with Tommy or Rocky that afternoon.

He saw a note from his parents. They were going out to celebrate their anniversary and left him money for pizza. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and was headed to shower when the phone rang. He grabbed the cordless phone.

"Hello," he said.

"Jase. I don't know how to tell you this," he heard Meredith say.

"What's up, Meri," he said. His ex-girlfriend sounded off.

"Trini. She was killed this afternoon in a car accident," she said before she started crying.

"What," he said.

"Jason, hey, Trini was killed and Meri wanted you to know," Rocky said.

"Thanks, Rock," Jason said, hanging up the phone.

He dropped down on the stairs he had been climbing. He hung his head. His closest childhood friend was dead. It didn't seem real.

He rubbed his face with his hands, well aware that the tears were coming.

Holding his head in his hands, Jason cried.

He cried over the loss. He cried for his friends. He cried for everything that was going to miss Trini's wonderful touch.

He sniffled and wiped his face. He picked up the phone and called the dance studio. Katherine wasn't as close to Trini as the other girls, but he knew she would want to know.

"Can I speak to Katherine Hilliard? This is an emergency," he said.

He held for a few minutes before Katherine's lilting accent came on the line.

"What's the matter, Jason. They said you were on the phone about an emergency," she said."Trini's been killed," he said.

"I'll be right there," she hung up the phone. He called Zack and relayed the information and sat down on the couch. He didn't even remember calling Zack and telling him.

He didn't know how long he sat there. He was sitting there one minute and the next thing he was falling into Katherine's arms.

He was aware of her tears hitting his neck, but he didn't care. A dear friend was gone and he'd been unable to do anything to save her. He felt powerless for the first time in his life.

KATHERINE

She got the phone call from Jason and asked one of the teachers who was leaving for a ride to Jason's house. She was worried about her boyfriend. The teacher had dropped her off at his house and she walked inside, not bothering to found Jason staring into the dark. When she sat next to him and wrapped her arms around him, his sobs causing her heart to ache. She was heartbroken at Trini's death. The girls, particularly Trini, had welcomed her into their group without question. She WAS the sunshine of their crew. She wondered how Adam was handling things. She didn't have an idea how she would be if something happened to Jason. She held him while he cried, her tears slipping down her cheeks. Katherine realized she was going to be the strong on in their relationship during this situation.

BILLY

He knew. The minute Trini's life ended, he knew it. A piece of his heart that Trini had occupied went dark. He didn't want to see anyone. He didn't want to participate in a group grief session.

He looked at the pictures of him and Trini in his photo album. He wasn't aware he was crying until the tears dropped on the plastic sheets. One by one, his tears pooled on the photos, blurring his vision. Billy closed the album and went to his bed. He picked up the pillow and cried.

THE MEMORIAL

No one wanted to speak at the memorial, but Kimberly and Adam said they would. It was only fitting. Kimberly was Trini's best friend and Adam was the love of her life.

Kimberly stood and walked to the podium.

"Trini was my best friend. She was my shopping partner. She was my confidant. I could tell her anything and know it would be kept secret. She never had a bad thing to say about anyone and tried to befriend everyone we met. She was the sunshine of our group. I would give anything for that sunshine to come back. I love you, Trini," she said.

She placed her yellow rose next to the picture and went back to her seat. Tommy wrapped her in his arms and sniffled back his tears.

Adam took her spot. He took a deep breath and everyone was worried how he was going to handle had spent a lot of time with him while he was processing. He hadn't said much to Rocky except that it hurt like hell that she was gone. Rocky didn't know what he was going to say. Only last night had be gotten mad and sparred with him, revealing just how upset he was over the accident. Rocky saw Adam fall apart last night and hoped he could handle another emotional day.

"I love her. No amount of someone telling me that she's never coming back is going stop it. I love her smile, the twinkle in her eyes, the sound of her voice. I love everything about her. She isn't just my girlfriend, my first love, she's my best friend. She understands me like no one else. She's here, in my heart and as long as I'm living and breathing, I will love her," Adam said. He sat his rose on the table by the picture and mouthed 'I love you' before sitting down.

Adam was in a personal hell. He knew that his friends were going to be there. Together they were going to get through it together. It wasn't going to be easy, but they were going to get out of this hell as a team.

***Well, what did you think? I hope I covered it well. The next installment is 'Breathe Again.' Thanks to Ghostwriter and Xranger 13 for the kind words. They helped me realize I need to keep going.*** -mereditholiver